Carrie White
'''Carietta "Carrie" N. White '''is a fictional character created by Stephen King who had the power of telekinesis. In every adaptation and portrayal of Carrie, she is shown as an outcast, loathed and taunted by her fellow students and constantly scolded by her mother, Margaret White, an abusive, mentally unstable religious fanatic. At the late age of 17, she has her first menstrual period in the showers at school, and is harassed by the other girls. Carrie triggers her telekinetic powers, and sets in motion the disaster that takes place at the high school prom. Novel Carrie is slightly chunky around the middle, with dirty-brown hair that is long and flat. With pimples on her neck, back, and buttocks, she is considered unattractive and repulsive. However, she used to be a very pretty girl when she was younger. Her dress is old and puritanical, because her mother will not allow her to buy normal clothes like other girls her age, believing them to be too provocative and outrageous. In the character of Carrie, she is lonely and shy. However, later in the novel, she undergoes a profound transformation, both physically and psychologically. Carrie's telekinetic powers are present throughout her life, usually evident in childhood incidents. She had closed a window and had dangled her own bottle above her crib when she was a baby. When she was three years old, she witnessed her teenage next-door neighbor sunbathing and asked her mother about the girl's breasts. Her mother scolded and physically abused Carrie for asking about such a matter. While she was inside her house, Carrie brought forth a hail of ice that smashed the bungalow. The chunks of ice were followed by a shower of rocks that plummeted onto the property, damaging it heavily while a table was almost sent toppling through the window. At the age of 17, after many years of the telekinesis remaining dormant, Carrie is in the shower after a physical education class when she has her first menstrual period. Already an outcast, Carrie is tormented by her peers, and taps into her telekinesis again. Now aware of her power, Carrie begins to practice and harness the power. When she is asked to the prom by Tommy Ross, Carrie attempts to say no, even though she has a crush on him. Eventually, she says yes, and is nervous but happy. Her mother attempts to stop Carrie from going, but Carrie insists on trying to fit in, not wanting to be weird anymore. She makes her own dress, and is described as being beautiful as Tommy Ross escorts her to the prom. At the dance, she gradually comes out of her shell, and even makes jokes while she converses with other promgoers. As she is accepted by the crowd, she begins to enjoy herself for once. Carrie and Tommy get elected the prom's king and queen, but while on stage, a bucket of pig's blood gets poured on Carrie by Christine "Chris" Hargensen. Humiliated, Carrie runs out of the gym, and she soon thinks of a way to exact her revenge. Walking back to the gym, Carrie suddenly slams all the gym doors shut. She uses her telekinesis to turn on the sprinklers, and the water sets off an electrical fire. Many of the promgoers die, but some escape through the emergency exit. 1976 Film In the original movie adaptation by Brian De Palma, Carrie was portrayed by Sissy Spacek. Carrie is seen as shy but attractive. She has an acne-free face, and reddish-blonde hair that is long and straight, as well as having a small, slim body. There was no evidence to show that her telekinetic powers were present in her life before, instead only being triggered by her first period. Her first shown telekinetic occurrences included toppling her principal's ashtray in his office, and sending a taunting child swerving off his bike and injuring him. Later, while in her room, she accidentally shatters a mirror that she was looking at, unlocks her door from a distance, and pieces the mirror back together. When Tommy Ross asks Carrie to the prom, Carrie runs away and hides, but is found by Miss Collins. She comforts Carrie and convinces her that she is pretty, brushing her hair out of her face to reveal her smile. Carrie accepts the invitation, and rebels against her mother's wishes when she throws her mother down against the bed to prevent interference. At the prom, Carrie is dazzled, and begins having the most wonderful time of her life, climaxing to the point that she is crowned as the Prom Queen, basking in the applause of the crowd of peers. While on stage, a bucket of blood gets poured on Carrie by Chris Hargensen. The bucket falls on Tommy's head and knocks him out. Humiliated, and believing everyone is laughing at her, she decides to extract revenge: she uses her telekinetic powers to shut the doors, and controls the fire hose with which she douses and kills many promgoers. Controlling the hose, she electrocutes two teachers trying to calm students speaking with a microphone. Starting an electrical fire, it quickly spreads all over the gym and she moves from the stage. Carrie walks out of the gym as it erupts into a ball of fire. Sequel Carrie was also featured in flashbacks in the sequel The Rage: Carrie 2. Sue Snell is now a high school counselor who was deeply scarred by the events of the prom, being one of the few survivors. Her attentions are drawn to a student named Rachel Lang, who is exhibiting telekinetic abilities similar to Carrie's. In the movie, it is revealed that telekinesis is a genetic disorder, with the male as the carrier, meaning that it is most likely to occur in females rather than males. After researching Rachel's past, she finds that she is in fact Carrie's half-sister: her father, Ralph White, having left Margaret White for Rachel's mother, Barbara Lang, thus giving Carrie and Rachel their telekinetic abilities from their father. 1988 Musical In 1988, the property was adapted into a musical co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Carrie was portrayed by Linzi Hateley in both the London production and the Broadway transfer. Her songs include "And Eve Was Weak," "Evening Prayers" and "I Remember How Those Boys Could Dance" (duets with Betty Buckley as her mother) and the solos "I'm Not Alone" and "Carrie." Linzi Hateley won a Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer for this, her first starring role.1 She recorded the song "Carrie" for her album Sooner or Later.2 2002 Television Film The television portrayal of Carrie was similar to the original novel, with the exception of her appearance. She was shown as having brown hair, a pale but clear complexion (although she says that certain foods, such as cake, give her pimples), and a small, slim frame. In this version Angela Bettis plays Carrie. Like the novel, her telekinetic abilities were present when she was a child, giving only one example: the shower of flaming rocks. Her only other telekinetic occurrences happened after the shower incident. However, more examples occur in this film that never took place in either the original novel or film; in one scene, she falls into a bizarre trance, during which she bends her metal ruler and cracks her desk in half with her mind, but is unaware of what she's done until she comes back to consciousness. After researching "miracles" and finding out about telekinesis, she begins practicing with it, attempting to control and intensify it. When Tommy Ross asks her to go to the prom with him, she shies away, but he insists and she accepts. Her mother, on the other hand, is completely against the idea. At dinner, Carrie insists, and uses her power against her mother, blocking the doorways and preventing Margaret from storming out. Carrie begins taking control of the situation, standing up for herself for once. Come prom night, Carrie dons her self-made dress, and sends her mother sliding out of the room when she comes in to interfere. Carrie's stress and paranoia grow to the point that she believes Tommy will not come, lifting things with her mind by way of fidgeting. When Tommy knocks on the door, she drops everything, crashing it all down to the floor. As the two of them arrive at the prom, Carrie is greeted with open arms, complimented and accepted by the crowd of students and teachers. She actually begins to enjoy herself, and is even more excited when she is elected Prom Queen. While on stage with Tommy, she drifts off into a daydream in which she and Tommy share the dance, leading to them kissing. 2012 Remake Remake Sequel Buckets of Blood Each portrayal of Carrie leads to her climax in enjoyment as she steps up onto the stage and is crowned Queen of the Prom, with Tommy Ross as her King. As the crowd of prom-goers and teachers applaud them, it is then that Chris Hargensen pulls the cord connected to two buckets (only one bucket in the movies) of pig blood. In both the novel and the 1976 film versions, Carrie remains unaware of the buckets until the blood actually splatters down on her, while in the 2002 film version, she happens to look up in time to see the bucket fall, sending the wave of blood down on her and Tommy. Tommy is struck in the head, rendering him unconscious; he dies within the hour as Carrie wreaks havoc around him. One of the difficulties in staging the musical was that when Carrie was drenched by the blood, it would clog Linzi Hateley's body microphone. Since her song "The Destruction" began almost immediately, there was no time to clear the microphone before it was needed. To solve this problem, an actor was dispatched to daub Hateley's face with stage blood and then invert an empty bucket on her head Carrie's Fate Each version of what happens to Carrie and Chamberlain is different, though sharing some similarities. Novel Perhaps the most destructive of the four variants. In this version, Carrie runs out of the gym as everyone begins laughing at her. After falling onto the wet lawn outside, Carrie remembers the power and plans to drench the others. Turning on the sprinkler system, she remembers the electricity is on, but proceeds. Witnessing the grotesque electrocution deaths of two students, Carrie's mind snaps, and she ultimately destroys the school, with most of the prom-goers in it. Walking home, she cuts a huge swath of destruction and death. When she enters the house her mother is waiting with a butcher knife to kill her, and stabs her severely; Carrie slows her mother's heart to a stop using her telekinesis. She leaves again, heading for the roadhouse where her mother says her father used to drink and watch strippers; Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan attempt to run her over with their car before Carrie takes control of their car and slams it into the side of the roadhouse. Carrie is left dying on the ground near the destroyed car, bleeding from the knife wound. She is found, two hours later, by Sue Snell, Tommy's girlfriend, who invites her into her mind to prove that she was innocent, and did not wish Carrie any harm. Carrie does not forgive her. She cries out for her mother and dies in Sue's arms. The incident hits the nation as hard as the John F. Kennedy assassination, to which it is explicitly compared. A blue-ribbon commission investigates, several survivors author their own accounts, and science begins to take telekinesis seriously. The town of Chamberlain is virtually deserted. The overall theme is that to forget what happened, or to think of it as a one-time occurrence, would be a huge mistake. 1976 Movie In the first film version, Carrie remains inside the gym after the blood lands on her. She snaps, and begins hearing her mother's voice saying what she had told her before she left for the prom, "They're all going to laugh at you." Carrie believes everyone is laughing at her, but really only a few of Chris Hargensen's cohorts are. Most of the promgoers are shocked, and if anything, horrified. Tommy Ross is rendered unconscious by the bucket hitting him in the head. Completely disillusioned, Carrie uses her mind to slam the doors shut. The laughs die down as the lights above Carrie change, giving off a spooky red tint. As the students begin to panic, Carrie uses her powers to pull out the emergency fire hose. Turning it on, Carrie then uses it to spray down students attempting to escape, even going so far as to spray Norma into submission and possibly fatality as the high-pressurized water is blasted into her face. Carrie then kills Miss Collins after pushing her against a wall and sending a ceiling rafter toppling down on her, crushing her torso against the wall. Mr. Fromm and Principal Morton take to the mic, but Carrie turns the hose on them, instead hitting the wires and electrocuting Principal Morton. Mr. Fromm is set on fire and stumbles backwards, and his flaming sleeve ignites the mural behind him. The flames spread quickly, and Carrie finally steps down from the stage, walking out of the school as the flames rise behind her, locking the students in to burn. As Sue revealed in the sequel, some survived the havoc, although names were not given. As Carrie begins walking home, Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan attempt to run her over from behind, but one glance from her sends the car toppling and rolling before exploding. When Carrie makes it home, she first washes the blood off of herself in the tub before putting on a nightgown. She is greeted by her mother, who literally stabs her in the back and stalks her through the house, almost stabbing her again before Carrie sends a barrage of kitchen utensils flying at her one by one, eventually crucifying her against a doorway, pinning her hands to the beams and sending one last knife spinning into her heart, killing her. Carrie then pulls her mother's body off of the wall, as her own stress pulls down chunks of the roof, bringing down the house. She then drags her mother's body into the prayer closet as the house begins to catch fire. Carrie finally dies from her wound as the house begins to sink into the ground. 1988 Musical Margaret stabs Carrie on a "white-on-white staircase to heaven" during the song "Carrie (reprise)" in a moment described by one scholar as "the sort of moment Florenz Ziegfeld might have come up with had a lunatic asked him to stage a Grand Guignol version of his Follies." Carrie uses her powers to stop Margaret's heart before dying herself, comforted by Sue. 2002 Film The made-for-television version is overall more faithful to the book, although the special effects are ramped up to 21st century standards. The story is told as a flashback. The police question several surviving students and faculty about the incident at the school and the death of Carrie White. Also, anyone who has seen any previous adaptation of the story may automatically assume that Carrie has died. However, in a surprising twist, Sue finds Carrie, unconscious after her mother tried to kill her, and resuscitates her. Carrie hides out in the ruins of the school, while Sue is questioned by the police. (The film was a pilot for a proposed series about Carrie, which never materialized.) Carrie remains inside the gym after the blood lands on her. As the crowd of students begin laughing at her, she uses her mind to slam the doors shut after she sends a wave of energy through the crowd. Tina Blake's date, Kenny, tries to stick his hand through the doors in an attempt to stop them, but Carrie crushes and twists his arm between the doors. The students begin to panic, and Carrie viciously crushes Tina Blake to death with the basketball backboard, after striking her to the floor with it. As the gym erupts in panic, huge sets of lights begin to shake above the crowds, letting off showers of sparks and falling down to the floor. One set swings and smashes against the mural, igniting it in flames. The fire quickly spreads as the prom-goers panic, crowding at the doors. Miss Desjarden, along with Norma, find an exit route through a vent as the sprinklers above turn on, showering the gym with water. Carrie breaks the pipes lining the walls, leading up to the sprinklers, sending the water gushing out of the broken end, flooding down onto the floor. Carrie begins walking out as another set of lights swings and smashes into the electric basketball scoreboard. Miss Desjardin hurries a few students into the vents before attempting to crawl in herself, only to be left dangling, just as the scoreboard hits the water-soaked floor. Everyone else is electrocuted as they run along the gym floor, and Carrie walks through the doors, and collapses the entire flaming school as she leaves. She then makes her way through the town, destroying it in a similar fashion to the novel, exploding gas stations and destroying cars. Chris and Billy attempt to run her over, but she instead sends the car flying at a tree, crushing them to death. Carrie finally makes it home; still wearing her blood-covered prom dress, she steps into a bath and washes herself. Her mother attempts to drown her in the tub while reciting the "Now I lay me" prayer. Carrie responds to this by (telekinetically) stopping her mother's heart, killing her. Afterward, Carrie just lies there, completely submerged in her bath. Sue finds her later, and manages to revive Carrie. Afterwards, Carrie visits her own grave (she is thought to be dead), as well as her mother's. There, Sue insists that Carrie must not be seen by anyone, and that she must leave town. Sue then offers to drive her as far as Florida, and the film concludes with Carrie startled awake in the passenger seat of Sue's car by a nightmare of her mother. When questioned she dismisses the dream as "nothing," implying that she may be able to put her past behind her and move on. 2012 Film Powers and Abilities Carrie White possess an incredibly powerful telekinesis. She is capable to manipulating multiple objects ie: firehose, slamming the door and windows shut. The full extent of her powers are unknown, but is strong enough to force a car away from her and spontaniously combust. Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Females Category:Scream Queens